


Escape the Night: The Invitation

by Dede42



Series: Escape the Night Season 1 [1]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: 1920s, Artifacts, Character Death, Clues, Dark Comedy, Dark Fantasy, Dinner Party, Dreams, Escape the Night Season 1, M/M, Murder Mystery, Novelization, Poisoning, Puzzles, Riddles, Secret Society, mansion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-01-11 19:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18430496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dede42/pseuds/Dede42
Summary: When Joey Graceffa inherits a house from a distant relation, he invites his friend Dawn Hatcher to stay at the house with him. The house only exists in the 1920s and after Joey suffers from a repeating nightmare, they invite friends for a dinner party. When one of their friends dies, they have to survive the night. Can they do it?





	1. PROLOGUE: NIGHTMARES AND THE HOUSE

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, world and welcome to Escape the Night! This is posted on my fanfiction.net account, too.  
> Now, on with the story!

**PROLOGUE: NIGHTMARES AND THE HOUSE**

 

*****

 

The first time that Joey Graceffa had the nightmare about an unusual, and yet, beautiful house, he thought it was because he’d been watching too many horror movies or when he competed on the first season of  _Fight of the Living Dead_ last year and had come close to winning until he was killed off. However, when the nightmare kept repeating itself, it was then that he started to wonder if he was going insane.

 

*****

 

_Joey is running – from what he doesn’t know for sure, only that he is scared out of his mind of whatever it is – he runs through wet fields, and it is raining. He is soak and he is scared, but he keeps running, running from whatever it is that is chasing him. He keeps running until he trips and lands on his face._

 

_Joey forces himself to sit up and he sees it in the distance. The house. The house that had been built without hands and was trapped in time. This house was calling to him, and he desperately wants to go to it, to the house that is both deadly and beautiful at the same time. He gets up and staggers towards it, but before he can reach it, he finds himself surrounded by gravestones that are everywhere._

 

_He has been here before, although he isn’t sure how he knows that, but it was a familiar place, just like the house he was trying to reach. He looks at the gravestones and there are familiar names on them, but he can’t make them out because of the rain pouring down out of the sky, and when he tries to move past them, he trips and lands in the mud._

 

_Joey hears the footsteps coming from behind and whatever it was he was running from was catching up with him_ again _. He digs at the ground for a weapon, but all he can find is mud and the footsteps get closer, and he scrambles to his feet to run once again. He_ had _to reach the house, he just_ had to _! But before he can take a single step, something grabs him by the shoulder, and he is thrown against a nearby tree._

 

_Joey rolls to the ground and scrambles to his feet, backed against the tree as his chaser, a figure dressed in a black hood robe with a creepy-looking mask hiding the face, advances toward him with with a rusted hook for a hand. It moves closer toward him, almost as if it was feeding on his fear, and he braces himself for the worst, knowing that he can’t reach the house in time-_

 

*****

 

Joey woke up with a gasp and nearly fell out of the bed, but stopped himself in time.  _‘Again, that same blasted dream again,’_ he thought, breathing hard, sweat soaking his hair.

 

Joey climbed out of the bed and staggered to the bathroom, where he turned the light on, and winced in the bright light as he made his way over to the sink. Once his eyes adjusted, he stared at himself in the mirror, and he didn’t like what he was seeing: his face was pale despite his tanned skin from living in the L.A. area, there were dark bags under his eyes, and he knew that it was going to get to the point that not even makeup would be able to hide them from his six million subscribers on YouTube, his own family, or even from Daniel, who was his boyfriend and he was currently out of town visiting family.

 

“Snap out of it, Joey,” he told himself for what felt like the hundredth time for the past two weeks. “Snap out of it and pull yourself together. It’s just a dumb dream and it’ll fade like they always do. That house isn’t real, and there’s no creepy guy in a black robe with a hook coming after you.” He then splashed some cold water on his face and went back to bed.

 

*****

 

Unfortunately for his sanity, the nightmare wouldn’t go away, and it kept coming for two weeks. After this kept happening, Joey figured he needed to talk to someone about it since he knew that if you shared a nightmare with someone, then it usually started fading away, and while he wished that Daniel was back to talk to, he instead turned to a friend he’d made at a comic-con event he’d been invited to, and he knew that if anyone could help him, it was Dawn Hatcher.

 

*****

 

Joey and Dawn met for lunch at one of their favorite cafés in downtown L.A., and he was grateful that the actress had accepted and that she’d been in town since she lived in Provo, Utah with her family. The fact that he was friends with a Mormon had gotten him teased quite a bit, but he didn’t care since Dawn respected him, and they didn’t force their opinions down each other throats.

 

“You feeling ok, Joey?” Dawn asked after they got their sandwiches and drinks, coffee for him and a Diet Coke for her. “You seem pale. What’s going on?”

 

“I’ll explain after we eat,” Joey promised. “This – this isn’t something I can discuss over food, and I rather not spoil your appetite.”

 

“Ok,” Dawn agreed and they ate their sandwiches.  _‘Something is going on with Joey, and it’s clearly affecting his health.’_ Although she didn’t have a YouTube channel like Joey and she hadn’t really seen many of his videos, they had bonded over other things, especially over his little brother, who has Autism, and since she also had Autism, she understood how hard it was on him. Thanks to her, Joey knew what his brother had wasn’t an illness, but that his brain was wired differently, and with her help, he had been able to help his brother become more social with others, which was a big win for autistic people.

 

*****

 

After finishing and paying for their lunch by splitting the check, they were soon walking through one of the parks, and they sat down on top of a picnic table. Once they were both seated, Joey told her about the recurring nightmare, and he didn’t leave anything out.

 

“A house trapped in time?” Dawn repeated and he nodded with an expression that was pretty much pleading her to believe him. “Does anyone else know about this dream?”

 

“I haven’t told anyone about this dream, not even Daniel when we’ve talked on video chat, only to you,” Joey confessed. “I don’t know why I keep having it, and it’s driving me _crazy_.”

 

Dawn put a hand on his and gave it a squeeze. “Joey, I get it,” she said with an understanding empathic tone that got him to look at her. “You’re scared and there’s nothing wrong with being scared. Who knows? Now that you shared the dream with me, maybe it’ll stop. And maybe you should let Daniel know what’s been going on, too. You know he’ll understand.” Yeah, she knew that Joey was gay, but she didn’t hold it against him since she knew plenty of actors and actresses that were either gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and even transgender, and they were all great and friendly people, so why hold it against them?

 

Joey sniffed and gave her a watery smile. “I’m hoping that it will,” he agreed. “When I first had the nightmare, I thought it was from watching too many horror movies.”

 

“I told you that horror movies are bad for your health,” Dawn teased and soon they were both laughing and joking.

 

*****

 

Two days went by and Joey didn’t have the nightmare, so it looked like talking with Dawn had helped after all. He had taken her advised and told Daniel the next time they video chatted and his boyfriend was  _very_ understanding while pointing out that he should’ve mentioned something sooner, and then that was when the letter arrived.

 

*****

 

Joey had just finished uploading his latest YouTube video on his account when he heard the doorbell ring. He went to the door and opened it, surprised to find a tall, dark-haired man with dark eyes, a faint dark beard, and he wearing a suit that was more suited for the 1920s then for 2016. “Yes, can I help you?”

 

“Joey Graceffa?” the man inquired, ignoring the question.

 

Joey started feeling uneasy, but he forced it back, and nodded. “Yes, I’m Joey.”

 

“Mr. Graceffa, my name is Arthur,” said the man and presented him with a white envelope, “and I have been asked to deliver this personally to you, sir.”

 

Perplexed, Joey accepted the letter and invited Arthur inside. Going to the living room, Joey seated himself in one of the armchairs while Arthur seated himself on the couch, and he opened the letter.

 

The young man read through the letter twice, his eyes wide with shock, and he looked over at Arthur. “Wait, is this for real?” he asked. “I’ve inherited a _house_?” _‘How is this possible? How can I inherit something from a relative I’d never heard of?’_

 

“Yes, you have,” Arthur confirmed with a slight smirk. “This house is on an illustrious estate that only exists in the 1920s.”

 

Joey felt his heart dropped into his stomach and images from the nightmare flashed through his mind about the house trapped in time.  _‘OMG, it’s the house from my dream, isn’t it?’_ “A house trapped in time?” he guessed, swallowing a little since his throat had gone dry.

 

Arthur nodded. “Yes, and it was originally owned by your late cousin twice removed, and upon his death, he left it to you. This is mainly because he hated all of his other relatives.”

 

_‘Talk about being bitter,’_ Joey thought and reread the letter, mainly to give his brain a chance to process all of this, and to pull himself together. “So, a cousin I’d never met has left me his entire estate?”

 

“Yes, and since it only exists in the 1920s, nothing from the modern world will work there,” Arthur explained. “If you live there, then you can’t take anything modern with you, not even your clothes. I have a car that can time travel between there and the modern world, and if you desire to have someone stay with you, you can. Is there anyone in particular you would care to invite?”

 

Joey nodded. “Yes, I do know someone else who can stay with me,” he said, standing up. “Do you mind if I make a quick phone call?”

 

“Of course, go right ahead,” Arthur agreed with a wave of his hand.

 

Pulling out his cellphone, Joey quickly retreated into the kitchen, closing the door to a crack so that he could still see his strange guest, and hit the speed dial for a certain number.  _‘Please don’t be filming right now,’_ he thought, knowing that she was involved with filming some additional scenes for the upcoming film _Independence Day: Resurgence_. He probably should contact Daniel with the news, but there was someone else he needed to try first, and if that fell through, then he would invite Daniel instead.

 

_`“Joey?”`_ Dawn’s voice asked and it filled with concern when he let out a sigh of relief.  _`“Joey, what is it? Did that you have that nightmare again?”`_

 

“No, not exactly,” Joey answered, peering through the crack to make sure that Arthur was still on the couch before he continued, sharing with her about the arrival of the strange man and the contents of the letter, which he had with him. “…and so it looks like my nightmare might have been a telling of the future instead.”

 

_`“Joey, slow down a minute,”`_ Dawn requested in a tone that said that she was trying to make sense of what he’d just told her.  _`“Now, I know that visions are real and plenty of people can have them, but if this house is real, then that means that hooded figure with the hook_ might  _be real, too.”`_

 

Joey hadn’t thought about that, having been caught up in the realization that the house that’d been haunting his dreams was real. “Good point, maybe I shouldn’t accept the house,” he said, but the longing to actually see the house trapped in time was strong.

 

_`“Or we can check the house out together,”`_ Dawn suggested, surprising her friend,  _`“and see if it’s worth the risk of not having anything modern with us.”`_

 

“Wait, you’re willing to see the house with me?” Joey asked, surprised.

 

_`“Yeah, I am,”`_ Dawn responded.  _`“I admit that I’ve been curious about whether such a place could exist ever since you told me about your dream two days ago. And I may have done some research online about whether such places exist,”`_ she added sheepishly.

 

Joey snickered and laughed when she told him to “shut up”. “You and your curiosity strikes again,” he teased, earning another “shut up” from his friend. “So, do such houses exist for real?” he inquired, wishing that he’d done the same after he first had the dream.

 

_`“Sort of,”`_ Dawn replied. _`“Apparently these kind of houses are trapped in time warps or something from what I’ve able to find. Heh, that would explain a bit about the Classic_ Doctor Who  _Episode_ Ghost Light _.”`_

 

“Yeah, it kinda does,” Joey agreed while making a mental note to watch that particular episode again, or at least look it up. “That place was kind of trapped in time wasn’t it?”

 

_`“It was in a way,”`_ Dawn agreed.  _`“Listen, Joey, I got one last scene to shoot here, and then my part in the movie will be done with. If you can keep that Arthur guy there a little bit longer, how about I come meet him around 4:00 pm?”`_

 

“Sure,” Joey agreed. “I’ll ask him.”

 

_`“Good, send me a text since I need to get back to the set.”`_

 

“Ok, see you soon. Bye.”

 

_`“Bye!”`_

 

After closing his cellphone and pocketing it, Joey took a deep breath, and left the kitchen to talk with his guest.

 

*****

 

At 4:00 pm sharp, Dawn parked next to the sidewalk in front of the house and behind a car that clearly screamed 1920s to her.  _‘That must the car that belongs to Arthur,’_ she thought, getting out of her own car and locking the doors before heading up the walkway to the house, ringing the doorbell.

 

Joey immediately opened the door and greeted her with a hug. “I’m _so_ glad you made it,” he whispered into her ear. “This Arthur guy is  _seriously_ creeping me out. Come on in, Donny,” he said in his more normal voice, ending the hug and moving aside so that she could enter.

 

“Hi there,” Dawn said, stepping into the living room and Arthur stood so that they could shake hands. “You must be Arthur, right?”

 

“Yes, I am,” Arthur confirmed. “And I take it that you’re the SciFi actress Dawn Hatcher,” he added with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

 

Dawn didn’t let that faze her since she was used to people approaching her on the streets when they recognized her brunette curly hair, which she was wearing short more often these days, her blue eyes, and her clef chin. “Ah, so you’ve seen some of the stuff I’ve been in over the years,” she remarked, sitting down in the chair next to Joey’s. “So, Arthur, tell me more about this estate that Joey has inherited.”

 

Arthur did so, sharing with them about the size of the estate, the house itself, and what was on the grounds.

 

*****

 

After talking for a bit, Joey excused himself and Dawn, and they retreated into the kitchen to talk in private about what they’d learned from the strange man. “So, what do you think?” he asked. “Should I accept the house?”

 

“Well, we should at least see the place and the grounds,” Dawn suggested. “Get a look around before making any serious decisions.”

 

“That’s a good idea.”

 

*****

 

The next day, Arthur drove Joey and Dawn, who were dressed in outfits that they had to come up with that were 1920s, outside of the L.A. area, and as they neared a bridge, Dawn noted as the man opened a compartment in the dashboard to activate some kind of device that had a very steampunk feel to it. Both she and Joey started when there was a flash of golden light and a tingling sensation that shot through their bodies.

 

Before they could process what had just happen to them, their jaws dropped when Arthur drove through the white gates and before their very eyes, the house magically appeared with the rest of the estate.

 

“Oh, wow,” Dawn whispered as they got out of the car and stared up at the three-story white house with a black roof. “So, this is the house you’ve dreaming about?” she asked her friend quietly.

 

Joey mutely nodded and started when Arthur circled the car and gestured them to follow him.

 

*****

 

When Joey and Dawn entered the house, they found themselves in a foyer that was wooden paneled with a parlor on one side and a library room on the other. In front of them was a staircase that went upward and behind it was another hallway that went to the back of the house. Waiting for them was a tall woman in a maids outfit with black hair pulled back in a bun and dark eyes, and a slightly overweight man in a brown suit with brown hair and dark eyes.

 

“Mr. Graceffa, Ms. Hatcher, this is the rest of the house staff,” Arthur informed them. “Sarah is the maid and Marvin is the groundskeeper. Sarah, Marvin, this is Joey Graceffa and his friend, Dawn Hatcher. Mr. Graceffa is the gentleman who inherited the house,” he added.

 

Sarah did a curtsy and Marvin nodded in greeting. “Welcome.”

 

Arthur explained that he was the head of staff, basically the butler, and he gave them a tour of the house and the grounds.

 

*****

 

After the tour and having lunch in the dining room, Joey and Dawn walked along a path to the pool to talk in private. They were both impressed by the house and grounds, but they were also feeling _very_ uneasy about the whole place, too. And the staff was giving them the creeps, too, especially Sarah the maid.

 

“What do you think, Donny?” Joey asked when they reached the pool, where they removed their shoes and socks and sat on the edge of the pool to let their feet dip into the cold water, which felt good after all the walking they’d been doing.

 

“It’s a beautiful place,” Dawn remarked, “and it does feel like it’s locked in time or something. But there’s also something off about this place and the staff.”

 

“I know,” Joey agreed. “I’ve been having an uneasy feeling ever since Arthur first showed up at my house. Dawn, I didn’t say anything earlier, but last night I had the nightmare again.”

 

Dawn sighed, having feared something like that would happen. “Was it completely the same?”

 

“Yeah, it was,” Joey confirmed. “Should we stay here, or should I tell Arthur that I don’t want the place, beautiful as it is?”

 

“Let’s spend the night first and sees what happens.”

 

“Ok.”

 

*****

 

Letting Arthur know that they would be spending the night, the master bedroom was made up for Joey while a slightly smaller bedroom nearby was made up for Dawn, and after leaving the place to make phone calls to their respective families and friends, they went back to spend their first night there.

 

*****

 

It was after midnight when a whimpering noise woke Dawn up from the sound sleep she’d fallen into after tossing and turning for a few minutes, and she thought she’d imagined it at first. She was about to go back to sleep when she heard it again, and she sat up, listening intensely. When she heard it a third time, she got out of the bed, wrapped a robe around her, and padded bare-footed to the door.

 

Opening it, Dawn peered out into the hallway, listening, and her sensitive hearing picked up the soft whimpering, and she realized that it was coming from the master bedroom.  _‘Joey!’_ She hurried into hallway and quietly entered the large bedroom, where she found her friend tossing and turning in the bed, the sheets and blankets were twisted around him, and there was sweat soaking his bleached white hair while his face was twisted with fear.

 

Although Dawn knew that it was generally not a good idea to try and wake someone up when they were having a nightmare, she decided to take the risk. Going to the side of the bed, she reached out, and she shook his shoulder. “Joey,” she said, hoping to wake him from the nightmare before he hurt himself, “Joey, wake up, Joey!”

 

Joey woke with a start and she jumped back to avoid getting hit. It took him a few seconds to recall where he was and he looked over at his friend, who was watching with an expression that was both wary and concerned at the same time. “Dawn, did I – I-?”

 

“You didn’t hurt me, Joey,” Dawn reassured him, stepping next to the bed. “You were having the nightmare again?”

 

Joey nodded and he was dejected that the nightmare was coming back again.  _‘When I talked about it with Dawn, it left me alone for two days,’_ he thought,  _‘but after meeting with Arthur and choosing to come here, it’s back, and it won’t leave me alone.’_ He looked at his friend. “Dawn, do you mind – um, do you mind staying with me until I fall back to sleep?” he requested.

 

“Of course.” Dawn climbed into the bed as he scooted over and they both laid down. She was a bit surprised when he wrapped his arms around her waist, but she didn’t move, and even when Joey went back to sleep, she decided to remain instead of going back to her bedroom.

 

*****

 

Over the next few weeks, that became the sleeping arrangement with Joey and Dawn, and because of this, they were able to keep the nightmare at bay. They did use the time traveling car to return to 2016 to take care of their daily lives, check in on Daniel, who was back from his own trip and opted to stay at his and Joey’s place to look after their dogs, and Dawn did have to go back to Utah a few times. When this happen, Joey didn’t have a defense against the nightmare that wouldn’t let him sleep, and by the time his friend got back, he was now hearing a voice in the nightmare that hadn’t been there before.

 

_`“‘This house was not meant to be enjoyed by you and your friend only…invite others…bring your friends to me…’”`_

 

*****

 

“This voice is telling you to invite others here?” Dawn asked one morning over breakfast, and Joey, who was looking sleep deprived despite her being back, nodded. “Ok, I’m starting to think us remaining in this house was a bad idea, and we should be just leave.”

 

“Dawn,” Joey took her hand, surprising her, “a week ago I would agree, but I really want to stay here, and it wouldn’t hurt to invite friends to a dinner party would it? According to Arthur, I’ll be getting the deed to this place soon.”

 

Dawn hesitated for a moment. She didn’t trust Arthur, Sarah, or even Marvin, since there was something about them that left her uneasy whenever she saw them, and too often she saw a strange knowing smirk on Arthur’s face, like he knew something about the house that she and Joey didn’t know. “Well, ok.”

 

“Great.”


	2. CHAPTER ONE: THE INVITES ARE SENT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Joey and Dawn to invite friends to a dinner party. Nothing can go wrong with doing that, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to the first chapter of the pilot episode of Escape the Night. I'm posting a bit later then normal since I just got up from a much-needed nap as I got up earlier then usual to help with some real life stuff.
> 
> Anyway, on with the story!

**CHAPTER ONE: THE INVITES ARE SENT**

 

*****

 

Joey and Dawn went over the list of who to invite and they narrowed the list down to ten YouTubers that he was good friends with. Once this was done, Joey wrote the invites, and he was surprised when Arthur informed him that he knew some people who could deliver the invitations personally to his friends instead of sending them by mail.

 

Dawn found this suspicious, but Joey figured that if it got to his fellow YouTubers that much faster, then he was all for it.

 

*****

 

The next day, the people that Arthur knew went to the ten YouTubers that were to be invited, and presented them with the invites. Out of the invitees, only Timothy DeLaGhetto was suspicious when he answered the door and was presented with the invitation that had his name on the front of the envelope.

 

“Telegram for Mr. DeLaGhetto,” said the woman, holding up the envelope.

 

Tim snatched the envelope from her hand and gave her a suspicious look. “Am I getting sued?” he demanded and his suspicion grew when she merely turned and walked away.  _‘Ok, either I_ am  _getting sued, or she doesn’t know.’_ Shutting the door, he went back to his couch and opened the envelope, pulling out a letter that he unfolded to find that it was from Joey. “Huh.”

 

_To my esteemed friends. I have acquired an illustrious estate through the death of a distant relative who I’ve never met. I thought it only fitting that Dawn and I invite you all to attend a dinner party on its grounds._

_It will certainly be a night to remember. However, the estate is peculiar. It only exists in the year 1920. To enter its grounds, you must be dressed entirely of that era. If you are carrying anything from the modern world, the house will never simply appear for you._

_And not only your clothing, but your attitude must reflect the time. I have included your unique characteristics on the back of this invitation. My driver will pick you up and take you on a road that can only be driven by his mysterious time traveling automobile. Then almost magic, the place will appear._

_Your friends,_

_Joey and Dawn._

 

*****

 

GloZell Green, a forty-four-year-old black woman who’d been lucky enough to interview President Barack Obama just last year on her YouTube Livestream, was eating chips on her couch with her cane next to her, and her eyebrows shot up when she finished reading the invitation.

 

“It only exists in the year 1920?” she muttered. “The heck…?” She then flip it over and she couldn’t help but grin when she saw that she’d been assigned to be The Jazz Singer.  _‘Jazz Singer, eh? I can dig that, and I think my grandma has some 1920s clothing that might work.’_

 

*****

 

Matthew Haag, who was known as Nadeshot on YouTube, finished reading the letter and looked around his room, which was filled with computers, video games, and other modern things that definitely wouldn’t be going with him.  _‘Seriously, I can’t take_ anything  _modern with me?’_ he wondered with a frown.

 

He turned the invitation over and chuckled when he saw that he’d been assigned to be The Professor.  _‘Well, what the hell? This could be fun.’_

 

*****

 

Before she finished reading the invitation, Justine Ezarik flipped it over to see what she’d been assigned and she grinned at the words, The Gambler.  _‘Ooh, I like the sound of that,’_ she thought and she resumed reading the invitation while planning the YouTube video she would make after attending the party, and she could just imagine how many hits she would get on her iJustine account.

 

*****

 

The other people to get invites to the dinner party were Shane Dawson, who ran the shanedawsontv channel on YouTube, Sierra Furtado, who did all kinds of videos on her YouTube channel, Eva Gutowski, who ran the MyLifeAsEva channel on YouTube, Oli White, who ran TheOliWhiteTV channel on YouTube, Bart Walker, who mostly covered politics on his YouTube channel, Benny Smith, who covered cosplays on his YouTube channel, Lele Pons, who ran the LelePons channel on Youtube, and Andrea Brooks, who was an actress and did the AndreasChoice channel on YouTube.

 

*****

 

During the next week the fourteen invitees were busy doing research on their respective personas for the upcoming party, searching for the right 1920s clothing, and letting friends and family know about the party they were going to be attending. As far as any of them were concerned, this was a dinner party with a 1920s theme that they were going to do videos about when they all got back home.

 

The fact that they couldn’t take anything modern with them was odd and a bit disappointing, but if that’s what both Joey and Dawn wanted, then that’s what they were going to do.

 

*****

 

Unknown to those who would be attending the party or even to Joey and Dawn for that matter, one of the invitees had another reason for attending the dinner party, and that reason had to do with the house itself. This person knew something about the house that the others didn’t, something dangerous, something deadly, and this person was determined to finish something that hadn’t been finished in a _very_ long time.

 

*****

 

When the day for the dinner party arrived, the fourteen YouTubers, in their 1920s clothes, were each picked up by the time traveling automobile, and they were on their way, leaving 2016 far behind.

 

*****

 

The sun was starting to set behind the house and Joey was standing before a mirror in his bedroom while music played on a nearby and old-fashion record player. He was wearing a white dress shirt covered with a black vest, a black dinner coat, black slacks, shiny black shoes, and he was nervously adjusting his black bowtie when the door opened and Dawn entered.

 

“Wow,” he remarked, beaming when he saw her wearing a sleeveless gold and beaded flapper dress with matching gold jewelry, headband, gloves, and heels. “If I wasn’t gay…”

 

Dawn rolled her eyes and helped him straighten his bowtie. “Well, you are,” she stated and he snickered since it was an ongoing joke between them. “Well, I think you and I are as ready as we are ever going to be.”

 

Joey nodded, but he was still feeing both nervous and stressed since this was also the night he was suppose to get the deed to the house according to Arthur, who entered the bedroom at that very moment, startling them both.

 

“Joey, Dawn, your guests are arriving.”

 

“Thank you, Arthur.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, not overly exciting, but the ball is rolling and the next update will be on Tuesday. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	3. CHAPTER TWO: THE GUESTS ARRIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the guests to arrive and compare notes of what they think of the house that appeared right before their eyes out of thin air. This is going to be a great dinner party. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of Escape the Night! It's time for the guests to start arriving at the 1920s house for the dinner party. On with the story!

**CHAPTER TWO: THE GUESTS ARRIVE**

 

*****

 

As the sun fully set, the first guest to arrive and enter the house was Shane Dawson, and according to the invite he’d gotten, he was to be The Renegade for the night. After a bit of research, he was definitely looking the part in his brown leather jacket, white shirt, grey pants with matching tie, and dark brown boots. He hadn’t really bothered to shave since he figured that his scruffy appearance would fit the part perfectly.

 

_‘Well, this is quite an impressive place,’_ Shane thought, looking around the lobby, and he had to admit that when the house appeared, it had been a shock to say the least.  _‘Definitely a magical place. But good magic or bad magic?_ That _is the question.’_

 

*****

 

A few minutes later, Eva Gutowski entered the foyer and she was, according to her invite, The Journalist for the night. She was wearing a long red coat over a white blouse, a greenish-brown skirt, red heels, and over her brunette hair that’d been teased into a simple shoulder-length ‘do, she wore a white hat with a brown bow tied around it.

 

“Hey, Shane,” she said, greeting her fellow YouTuber and she looked him up and down. “Wow, you are looking quite dashing.”

 

“Why thank you, Eva,” Shane responded with a grin, which she returned. “What’d you think of this place?”

 

“Joey wasn’t lying about this place appearing like magic,” Eva commented, and she’d been glad she’d been sitting down when the house had magically appeared before her eyes, because if she’d been standing, she’d fallen over in shock. “Any sign of Joey or Dawn?”

 

Shane shook his head. “No, but I expect they’ll make an appearance once the rest of the guests gets here.” And Eva nodded since that made sense.

 

*****

 

Five minutes later, GloZell Green showed up and she was ready to be The Jazz Singer. She was dressed in a snazzy blueish-black dress, had brown furs draped over it, black heels, a pair of blue gloves were on her hands, and over her usual wig, she had on a flashy headband and a myriad of necklaces.

 

“Greetings,” she said to Eva and Shane, joining them while leaning on her black cane. “Wow, what a jazzy place, right?” And they both agreed while she broke into a short song about the house, getting into her character.

 

*****

 

It wasn’t very long before Oli White, who was the Big Game Hunter, entered the foyer. He was dressed in a white button-down shirt with a pair of spenders holding up brown pants, black boots, and a brown fur coat.

 

“Hello, everyone,” he said with his typical British accent. “What’d you think of this place?” And they compared notes about the house.

 

*****

 

Justine Ezarik arrived next and she was all ready to be the Gambler. Her long blonde hair was hanging loose in ringlets and she had on a sparkling white dress with a matching mink coat, and she wore a pretty white headpiece on her head.

 

“Darlings, ready for some fun?” she asked her fellow YouTubers with a wide smile that had GloZell snorting a bit, and both Eva and Shane snickering. “For I am _here_ to do some gambling!”

 

*****

 

Bart Walker was the next to arrive and he was to be the Filmmaker that night. He wore a black suit over a white button-down shirt with a dark red vest, a dark red tie, black pants, black polished shoes, and he wore a brown hat that effectively hid his thinning black hair.

 

“Hey pretty ladies,” he said, earning giggles from Justine and Eva while GloZell rolled her eyes. “Gentlemen, so where are our hosts?” he inquired.  _‘Especially the Mormon brat, Dawn Hatcher. I’ve got a bone to pick with her about her political views.’_

 

“I’m figuring that they’ll show up when everyone arrives,” Shane informed him. “And don’t forget the character persona you’re suppose to be acting like tonight,” he added, knowing that this particular YouTuber was known to go after people who weren’t Liberals.

 

“Don’t worry, Shane,” Bart said reassuringly. “I’m simply a filmmaker looking for the next star to appear in my next film.”

 

Oli and Eva exchanged skeptical looks as the two men chatted about films and which were good and which were bad. They had a feeling that if he had a chance, Bart would be going after Dawn tonight, who they knew were Conservative and it wasn’t a secret.

 

*****

 

Benny Smith was next to enter the foyer and he was all ready to play the Musician for the night. He was dressed in a red pinstriped outfit over a white button-down shirt, a black tie, brown shoes, and he wore a tanned hat on his head.

 

“Evening, ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a broad smile. “Your musical entertainment has arrived.”

 

“Well, well, I’m glad to hear that,” said GloZell, playing along. “I’m the Jazz Singer and I’d been hoping for someone to come along and play music.”

 

Benny chuckled while Bart rolled his eyes. “Well, you _are_ in luck, ma’am,” he replied, beaming at her.

 

*****

 

The next person to arrive was Andrea Brooks, who was to be The Fixer for tonight and she wasn’t entirely sure of what a Fixer was suppose to do since most fixers were apparently men and they stole money from others or so it seemed. She was basically wearing all black, with the exception of the black-and-white silk coat and a red necklace that went with her copper-colored hair. Basically, she was giving off some serious coven vibes, especially with her dark eye shadow and dark red lipstick.

 

“Hey there,” she said to those already gathered, and she was doing her level best to be her character.

 

*****

 

Matt Haag was the next to arrive and he was The Professor for the night. He was wearing an authentic World War I jacket over a pair of suspenders, a white shirt, a dark bowtie, brown pants, and brown shoes. He knew that he probably looked geeky, but he was definitely pulling it off, and he greeted the others before inquiring of them of what they thought of how the house just appeared so quickly.

 

*****

 

When Sierra Furtado arrived, she immediately caught the attention of the men with her little white dress, dainty white heels, white gloves, her grey fur coat, and she wore a white tiara on her head with her dark hair in an elegant bun. She was definitely The Heiress since she was carrying herself like she was royalty.

 

*****

 

The men were still gushing over Sierra when Lele Pons arrived by strutting through the door in full Hustler mode, and she nearly stole the show with her appearance. She wore a sleek black flapper dress that was covered by a silver top, black heels, at least four pearl necklaces, and a white headband to hold her blonde side bun in place. She was looking _very_ magnetic.

 

“Talk about over the top,” Eva muttered to Justine, who giggled.

 

*****

 

The last guest to arrive was Timothy DelaGhetto and he was already in his part as The Mobster. His hair was slicked back in a man-bun, but it was his outfit that was really eye-popping: he had on grey plaid pants, a plaid jacket over a plaid vest, a white shirt, shiny black shoes, a black tie, and a grey hat that he removed upon entering the house. He even had a sneaky little smirk on his face that showed that he was already fully in character.

 

Now that the guests were all there, they were now waiting for their hosts, and they were also eager to see more of the house, too.

 

However, little did any of them know, but this wasn’t going to be a typical dinner party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the guests are now there, and nothing can go wrong, right? Anyway, I will post the next chapter on Thursday. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	4. CHAPTER THREE: THE PARTY BEGINS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the party to start and for Joey and Dawn to greet their guests. It's just a fun dinner party and nothing can go wrong, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of the pilot episode of Escape the Night!
> 
> It's time for the party to start and for Joey and Dawn to greet their guests. Now, on with the story!

**CHAPTER THREE: THE PARTY BEGINS**

 

*****

 

After the last guest arrived, the YouTubers began talking among themselves, acting as their respective characters while upstairs, Arthur informed Joey and Dawn that it was time for the party to start. Joey, who had chosen to be The Savant, turned to Dawn, who was being The Hostess, and offered her his arm.

 

“Shall we go greet our guests, my dear?” he inquired, getting into character.

 

“Yes we shall,” Dawn agreed with a grin, also getting into character as she hooked his arm with her own, and they went downstairs together, following the butler.

 

*****

 

In the foyer, the YouTubers were becoming familiar with each other’s characters as Arthur and Sarah positioned themselves near the foot of the stairs to await for the arrival of the hosts of the party, and it was becoming clear that Justine, GloZell, and Lele were clearly hoping to find a way to live in this house with Joey based on observations by Shane, Matt, Oli, Bart, and Benny.

 

“This is such a nice place!”

 

“I know!”

 

“Does anyone have any mints? Do you have any gum? Mints?”

 

Shane was particularly excited to be there since this was his first YouTube party ever, and he had another reason for wanting to be in that house, but he wasn’t about to share that with anyone just yet.  _‘I hope I can get a chance to look around,’_ he thought while listening to an outlandish story that GloZell was sharing, and he laughed at a particularly funny part.

 

Just then, Joey and Dawn appeared on the stairs and the YouTubers turned their attention to them, laughing and clapping when Joey took Dawn’s hand and twirled her once so that the light caught the beads on her dress and they glittered.

 

“What do you guys think?” Joey asked after she did a quick curtsy, and he grinned as their guests cheered with several of them clapping, and GloZell blew kisses in his direction. _‘_ _So far, so good.’_ “Welcome,” he said, spreading out his arms and indicating the splendor around him, “to my new house.”

 

“This is _yours?_ ” Justine asked, sounding incredulous, almost as if Joey told her that he was now the owner of the Capitol Building.

 

Lele raised an eyebrow. “This isn't your house!”

 

“This is rented,” Tim insisted, unable to believe that his friend could be living in an amazing place like this.

 

Dawn snickered while Joey shook his head. “I actually have inherited this house,” he reminded them about what he’d written on the invitations, “from a distant cousin twice removed.”

 

“My cousins get me nothin',” GloZell complained, and this got a laugh out of the group.

 

Joey gave everyone's outfits a good once-over and _boy,_ did these guys go all out tonight. He knew he could count on them to play up the whole 1920s thing – after all, they _did_ talk into cameras for a living, of _course_ they would know how to look their best. “You all look _amazing_ tonight in your 1920s attire.”

 

And this compliment earns Joey more cheers and several "thank you's". Eva even took the opportunity to show off her legs, which Joey had to admit did look nice. He's pretty sure he heard Tim say "rented" again, but he brushed it off as Tim being Tim.

 

“I want to introduce you all to my wonderful staff that actually came  _with_ the house,” he continued, gesturing to Arthur and Sarah, who have been standing unnoticed against the wall this entire time. “Arthur, who is head of staff…”

 

Arthur was immediately greeted by a chorus of "his" and "hi Arthurs". He nodded and bowed.

 

“…Sarah, the maid…”

 

Sarah curtsied as the guests shouted her name.

 

“…and then there's Marvin, who's the groundskeeper,” Joey finished, feeling slightly awkward considering Marvin wasn’t there.

 

“You and your staff!” GloZell teased, her tone good-natured despite the mockery.

 

“Dinner is almost ready,” Joey informed them, “but until then, let's get to know each other a little bit more…” A grin sneaked its way across his face. “…and have some drinks.”

 

Of course, everyone cheered at that, and Joey's confidence shot through the roof. Dawn took his arm again and they went down the remaining steps to join their friends and the party was soon in full swing.

 

*****

 

While Arthur and Sarah served the guests trays of drinks, and while most of them were having champagne, Dawn was having white grape juice and that got her teased a bit, but it was the good kind of teasing since it was well-known that she’d been raised a certain way. The only person who would’ve given her a hard time about it was Bart, but Benny was determined to keep that from happening.

 

“So, what kind of film are you planning on doing next,” Benny inquired, keeping in character, “and will you be needing a musician?”

 

“I’m thinking of something to do with the jungle,” Bart replied, staying in character. “So, that depends on what kind of music do you think would fit for a movie like that?”

 

“Hmm, I’d have to think about it.”

 

“Of course.”

 

*****

 

Over at one of the tables in the library, Justine, GloZell, and Tim, who had a fake cigar in his mouth, were playing a card game, and he was doing his best not to lose the little money that he had on him.

 

“Hit me!” GloZell shouted, clapping her hands together like an overexcited two-year-old. “Hit me, hit me, hit me!”

 

Justine did so with the cards. "Oh!" she cried, laying her card on top of GloZell's. “Girl, blackjack!”

 

Tim shrugged and stuck his cigar in his mouth, surveying the cards on the table. _‘_ _Wow,’_ he thought to himself, noticing what Justine played. _‘_ _This girl is_ serious _about her gambling right now.’_ But that _did_ make sense. Justine was the Gambler, so of _course_ she liked gambling. Duh. And GloZell was the Jazz Singer, so of _course_ she was gonna go around acting like Ella freakin' Fitzgerald. He himself was the Mobster, which honestly isn't too far off from what he is in 2016: coming from nothing, building his own empire…killing people…figuratively, of course.

 

Anyways, he was having fun, and he couldn't _wait_ to vlog about this trip when he gets home. He could see the thumbnail now: _I TRAVELED THROUGH TIME?!?_ Paired that title with a pic of him looking like that kid from _Home Alone_ when he freaked out, and he'd good to go.

 

It's not like anyone will actually believe him, obviously…but they'll still click on it, and that's all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, the party is starting and so far everyone is having fun. But will it last? You'll just have to find out on Tuesday.
> 
> Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	5. CHAPTER FOUR: PARTY CONTINUES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party is in full swing, everyone is having a good time, and yet Shane is wanting to look around, for he knows something that the other YouTubers don't know. Will he be able to sneak away to find what he needs to find?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night! Yes, I am updating a day early, but I was itching to do an update, and there will be another update tomorrow and on Wednesday since I have work on Thursday at the movie theater. Anyway, I had a lot of fun at Salt Lake FanX with my sister, where we dressed up in cosplays (Doctor Who on Friday and Ravenclaws on Saturday, she was Luna Lovegood), did get stopped to have our pictures taken by other cosplayers, attended some panels, and did two photo ops with Billie Piper, who played Rose Tyler, and Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy.

**CHAPTER FOUR: PARTY CONTINUES**

 

*****

 

Andrea was doing her best to be in character, but it wasn’t easy, and so she was mostly listening to the others, especially Oli’s story about how he’d “just go back from Africa”, where he’d “beenhunting for the past couple of weeks or so”. She was a vegetarian, but she was going to let it slide, because his outfit was cute, and it occur to her that all of these people are working hard to stay in character.

 

Oli, the Big Game Hunter, was talking of hunting and Africa; Dawn was being the gracious hostess; Lele, the Hustler, was eyeing everyone's jewels; Sierra, the Heiress, wasn’t ooohing and aaahing at all the rich people stuff around her, because why would she? And then there was Andrea, just being Andrea, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was doing something wrong. She hadto play the part. She _had_ to be the Fixer. But how can she be the Fixer when she didn’t know what that is?

 

“I love the dark mistress look!” Joey said to her, bringing her out of her thoughts and sending her straight into panic mode. “It's gorgeous!”

 

“That is a really beautiful outfit, Andrea,” Dawn agreed with a smile.

 

“Thank you,” Andrea said graciously while mentally telling herself into get into character. “Yeah, y'know, I'm really into fashion, I really like to make things, I like to fix things, so if you have something broken I can fix it.” _‘Is that what a Fixer is? I don't know, I don't know, I don't-’_

 

Fortunately, that seemed to be enough for Joey. “Really?”

 

“Yeah.” Andrea smiled and crossed her arms. _‘_ _Nailed it_ _.’_

 

Joey turned to Dawn with a teasing smile. “Maybe we should have Andrea here fix up your wardrobe,” he offered.

 

“My wardrobe is just fine, darling,” Dawn said with her own teasing smile that had Oli and Andrea both snickering since this was another ongoing joke between them. “And you know it.”

 

*****

 

Still making their rounds, Joey and Dawn were talking with Oli and Sierra about how it was amazing that no technology worked there, and that they had to leave the grounds just to get any text messages.

 

“But it is kind of nice to get away from everything modern every now and then,” Dawn commented.

 

“Yeah, I can see that, too,” Oli agreed.

 

Sierra nodded. “It _is_ a nice vacation.”

 

Lele, who’d decided as she sidled up to the group that she just _had_ to be a part of this house. It was so big, so fancy, so…everything anyone could ever dream of.

 

“Joey, do you own this house?” she blurted out in a rush of excitement and curiosity.

 

Dawn almost choked on her drink while Joey frowned and shifted his feet a bit. “I don't have the deed yet…”

 

“So you're not rich?” Lele inquired and that didn’t make sense to her since mansions were for rich people. Lele ought to know; she'd never had one.

 

“You  _basically_ own it," Oli chimed in.

 

“No, no, no, it's…” Joey's fumbling his words. “It's going to happen.”

 

Dawn nodded, once she’d recovered. “Yes, it’ going to be happening soon.”

 

Next to Lele, Sierra piped up, an adorable little grin on her face. "They’re moving."

 

"Tonight," Joey said quickly, recalling what Arthur had told him, “it's supposed to happen, actually.”

 

“Oh, really?” Now Lele's intrigued. A guy receiving a brand-new dream house and inviting all of his friends to party with him on the _very same night_ he finally signs the deed…it was like one of those fantasy-romance novels waiting to happen.

 

“And once I sign it, it's officially mine,” Joey explained, “but, like, Dawn and I have been living here, so…” He shrugged. “It's mine.”

 

_‘Well,’_ Lele thought to herself while looking at the actress with a jealous look,  _‘_ _at least a girl can dream_ _.’_

 

*****

 

Meanwhile in the library, Eva was playing darts with Shane and Matt, and while she wasn’t very good at the game, she was having fun, and she laughed when Shane turned his back to the dartboard and threw two darts at the same time, and both of them stuck near the bullseye. Although she was having fun, she was also curious about the house.

 

How could a house be stuck in a single time period? It was like something out of a science fiction story, or even an episode of _Doctor Who_. Basically, she _really_ wanted to explore the house and find out what made the place tick.

 

When Matt stepped away to talk with some of the other YouTubers, Shane surprised her by pulling her aside. “Are we allowed to look around?” he asked in a low voice and she grinned since she’d been thinking the same thing.

 

“I'm down if you're down.”

 

*****

 

Over at the card game, GloZell was making odd faces as she considered her cards, and while she wasn’t about to admit it to anyone else, she was in awed of the house, and she could see herself living in a place like this. Of course, she had to make sure that she didn’t lose all of her money to Justine, who was clearly on a winning streak.

 

“Whatcha gonna do, GloZell?” Tim inquired, and his voice was laced with an unspoken challenge.

 

GloZell considered for a moment and then she responded by doing what a Jazz Singer did best: breaking into song. "Hit me one more time!" Of course, her furs chose _now_ to fall off her shoulder, so she had to stop the song in order to put them back in place. _‘Oh_ honestly _, it's hard bein' pretty. How on earth do these folks stand it?’_

 

“Hit you with my best shot!” Justine sang back, and she slapped another card onto the table.

 

“Um, I'm the Jazz Singer here, sweetheart,” GloZell reminded her.

 

Justine did that cute little flounce that made it damn near impossible to stay mad at her. "Sorry."

 

GloZell smiled, but she didn't let up. "I know you sing pretty, but I don't do duets." She laughed for a split second before shooting another pointed stare in Justine's direction.

 

Justine, to her credit, stared right back, and Tim just shook his head, chuckling as the two women ended up laughing, and they went back to the game.

 

Of course, GloZell had been hoping that she was the only one invited by Joey and that Dawn wouldn’t even be there, especially since she just didn’t see why someone like Joey would invite an actress to stay with him in a beautiful house like this. Y'know, that maybe he'd throw a just-her-and-him kind of thing, and then maybe they could live in this house together and she could be rich too, or something like that, she didn’t know. At any rate, she wasn't expecting all these other folks to be here too, and yeah, she'll admit it, she was a wee bit disappointed.

 

_‘But it's fine,’_ she thought to herself as Tim chortled and Justine dealt another round.  _‘_ _I'll do whatever… 'long as I get my man…_ _and my mansion_ _.’_

 

*****

 

Meanwhile, Oli was curious about what Joey was planning on doing with the house. “So would you want to live here your whole life, then?" he inquired and he was genuinely curious. He was impressed with this place as anyone, obviously, and he was having loads of fun at this party and all, but _living_ here… _forever_ …If Oli was in Joey's position, he wasn’t sure if he'd be up for it.

 

"Yeah!" Joey replied. "Why not?"

 

"Alone?" Lele inquired and she got a strange, almost hungry look in her eyes, and it was making both Oli and Dawn a little nervous. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

 

Once again, Dawn almost choked on her drink while Oli winced. They both immediately felt sorry for Lele since it was clear that she didn’t know about Joey having a boyfriend like they did, and they were pretty sure she was going to feel like a complete idiot in the next minute or so.

 

Joey was a bit taken aback, but he smiled politely nonetheless. "No." He turned to Dawn, Oli, Sierra, and Andrea, grimacing slightly. "I guess she didn't watch my video."

 

Andrea and Sierra burst out laughing, and even Lele burst into a grin. Glad that no one got embarrassed or offended after all, both Dawn and Oli smiled too.

 

*****

 

Back in the library, Shane was itchy to start exploring the house. Thrilled as he was that he was attending his first ever YouTube party, and that being in the 1920s meant that he didn’t have to worry about texting or updating any of his online stuff, which was a vacation in of itself. But there was _definitely_ something up with this house, and he was determine to get to the bottom of it before anyone got hurt, or worst.

 

Shane was about to suggest to Eva, who was eager to explore, that they should sneak away to look around when both Joey and Dawn walked up to see how the dart game was going, and they spent the next few minutes, throwing darts at the dartboard.

 

“Can we, like, look around?" Shane asked finally, deciding to get to the point instead of playing around with his words.

 

"Look around?" Joey repeated and he seemed a bit taken aback by the question, but he recovered quickly. "Uh, no, I think we should just stay down here. Dinner's almost ready, so I think we should just…hang out here…" His eyes darted away from Shane and toward the mahogany floor. "Yeah."

 

_‘Uh oh,’_ Dawn thought, having seen that expression on Joey’s face before when she came back from taking care of a few things back in Utah, and she knew it probably had to do with the nightmare. “What Joey means, is that we can give everyone a tour after dinner,” she informed Shane, who seemed to accept that.  _‘Whew! That was a close one!’_

 

While Shane acted like he’d accepted the actress’ suggestion, he could tell that they both were lying just by looking into their eyes. There was something Joey Graceffa and Dawn Hatcher didn’t want their guests to see.

 

Shane steeled his nerves and he prepared to venture into the unknown. He didn't _want_ to face whatever was out there, especially considering some of the stories he'd heard about this place. But he had a mission, and he was gonna get it done or die in the attempt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, will Shane be able to look around the house and complete his mission? Guess you'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out. See you all tomorrow! Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	6. CHAPTER FIVE: SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the party continued and dinner is ready, Shane and Eva decide to break off and take a look around the house, unaware that there was someone or something else waiting in the shadows to strike. What will Shane and Eva find? And who is plotting against the YouTubers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of Escape the Night!
> 
> As I promised yesterday, here is the next chapter, and I will be posting again tomorrow, too. Now, time to see how our favorite YouTubers are doing. On with the story!

**CHAPTER FIVE: SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR**

 

*****

 

As the party continued, Eva was starting to think that she and Shane weren’t going to have a chance to sneak away when the butler, Arthur, rang a bell, and Joey went to the small landing with Dawn so that they could hear him as he made an announcement.

 

“Dinner is served, so head on into the dining room!”

 

Realizing that this was their chance, Shane pulled Eva aside as the guests started heading into the dining room with Joey and Dawn in the lead, and he nodded at her. She returned the nod, and they both snuck off in the other direction, heading for the stairs, fighting back giggles as they did so.

 

*****

 

As Shane and Eva climbed the majestic staircase to explore the second floor, they were both quietly snickering and taking in the appearance of the place.

 

“This is _so_ creepy,” Shane remarked quietly with a laugh as they neared the top of the stairs.

 

“I know,” Eva agreed as she took in all of the beautiful artwork on the walls, and the various antiques scattered about. Because she was looking around, she missed seeing the grim expression that had appeared on Shane’s face, and she had no idea that he had entirely different reason for being in the house _and_ for sneaking around like this.

 

*****

 

“Oh, the salad looks delicious!" Joey exclaimed as he took his place at the head of the table with Dawn sitting next to him on his right. So far, the party had been going great – everyone loved his brand-new house, everyone was getting along, and no one had gotten so much as a paper cut.

 

Everyone took their seats as they found their name places. Lele did take a while to find hers, but eventually she settled in next to Sierra. And of course, the first thing she wanted to know was "So how _did_ you get this house, anyway?"

 

"It just happened," Joey replied with a smile. "Fell into my lap." _‘Almost_ literally  _it seems like.’_

 

"Thanks for inviting us, by the way," Oli said gratefully.

 

“You’re absolutely welcome, Oli,” Dawn said graciously.

 

"No, of course!" Joey agreed, who was pretty much sky-high at this point.

 

"Wait…" Sierra's green eyes darted around the table. "Where's Eva and Shane?"

 

Exchanging perplex looks, both Joey and Dawn gave the guests a quick once-over and…yep, there were two empty seats where the Renegade and the Journalist ought to be. _‘_ _What in the world…?’_

 

The guests immediately launched into a chorus of "oooooohs," no doubt jumping to some very dirty conclusions. As for Joey, a part of him felt a little disrespected. He’d _told_ Shane not to go exploring, even Dawn had promised to give a tour after dinner, and what does he and Eva do? Go exploring anyway. It was kind of insulting, to be honest.

 

_‘I swear to God, Shane and Eva,’_ Joey thought, _‘_ _if you two went off to do…you know…I will never invite either of you back here ever again_ _.’_

 

Dawn covered her face with one hand, but the guests had seen her face go red, and they all laughed, even Joey chuckled. “Heavens help us if they’re doing anything kinky in one of the bedrooms.”

 

*****

 

“You scared yet?" Eva teased Shane as they reached the second floor. Even though the house did have a haunted house feel to it, Joey and Dawn had been living here for weeks, and nothing terrible had happened to them.

 

They finally reached the top of the stairs, Eva was still enraptured by the unbelievable grandeur of it all…and then she saw something her history books could never have prepared her for.

 

Someone was moving a body out of sight in a nearby hallway.

 

"Wait." Eva stopped dead in her tracks. Yep, that was a body all right, and whoever had it, had just been dragging it away down another hallway. "Wait, what?"

 

She was about to go charging in after it, but Shane grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the scene of the crime. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." He seemed just as unnerved as she is, but at least he was managing to keep his cool. "Maybe, uh…"

 

Whatever he was about to suggest, died in his throat when the maid appeared, with some blood on her face, and a cold ruthlessness in her eyes.

 

While Eva wasn’t feeling so brave anymore, Shane, however, was feeling calm. The moment that he saw Sarah the maid in the act of hiding a body, whatever fear he had been feeling, evaporated. Now he knew who the enemy was, and completing his mission and saving his friends suddenly seemed so much easier than it did previously.

 

Sarah approached them with a smile that didn’t reach her dark eyes, and when she spoke, she had a Russian accent. “The dinner's ready."

 

"Where's…where's the bathroom?" Eva asked, stammering.

 

Shane, sensing her fear, put a protective hand on her shoulder. _‘I shouldn’t have asked you to come with me, but I was scared and this is on me.’_

 

Sarah ignored the question. "You should probably head downstairs.”

 

Shane turned to Eva. “Yeah, here, turn around." And she didn’t need to be told twice as she immediately made for the staircase and she didn’t look back.

 

Once Eva was safely out of the way, Shane turned and looked the maid dead in the eye. "I know what you're doing." There was a hard edge to his voice, and his cold stare never left Sarah's soulless eyes.

 

After shooting one more glare her way, just to make sure she knew he meant it, Shane followed Eva back downstairs.

 

He now knew what he had to do. He wasn’t going to enjoy it, but if it means completing his mission and getting his friends safely home, he'll do anything. He just hopes the house didn’t get to them first.

 

*****

 

Unknown to the people in the house, someone was busy chaining the front gates shut, was sealing every possible exit to the estate, and this person was even planting dynamite under the front tire of the time traveling car.

 

_‘Oh, those foolish little people, sitting there in the dining room eating their food,’_ the unknown person thought, staring at the guests through the window so the person could only see Joey’s back. _‘They think that everything's peachy keen, well, except for the Dawson boy – must take care of him soon. They think that they're going to throw their party and then go home._ _They don't know how doomed they really are_ _.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, Sarah dragging away a body, someone sealing the exits. Why do I have a nasty feeling about this? Well, tomorrow those questions and more will be answered. See you all tomorrow! Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	7. CHAPTER SIX: DINNER MAYHEM!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner is underway, some of the girls are flirting with Joey with the hope that they would be able to live in the house, and after Eva and Shane finally show up, things start getting intense. Who will be the first victim of the night?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of the pilot episode of Escape the Night! Now, if you haven't watched the show, then go to Joey's channel on YouTube and watch the first season before you continue reading. Of course, you'll have to have a subscription to YouTube Premium in order to watch all of the episodes, but it'll be worth it, I promise.
> 
> So, time to see who will be the first victim since someone is probably going to die at some point in this series. On with the episode!

**CHAPTER SIX: DINNER MAYHEM!**

 

*****

 

Unaware of what was going on both upstairs and outside, the dinner was in full swing despite the two missing guests, and GloZell got everyone laughing, especially Joey, when she broke out into a random song.

 

“Sittin' here with the food/Havin' fun with Jo-eeeeey…"

 

"Oh my!" Joey was grinning up a storm.

 

“Careful, Joey,” Dawn teased when she saw that he was flushing a little, “you’re turing red.”

 

“No I’m not!”

 

GloZell grinned back. "I wish he'll give me some of that mon-eeeeey!" And everyone laughed.

 

"I just got the house, okay?" Joey insisted. "I didn't get money."

 

_‘Oh, sure you didn't, sweetie,’_  GloZell thought and similar thoughts were running through Lele’s mind, too.

 

"You could put it on the market," Matt piped up.

 

“Yeah, a place like this could go for a lot,” Bart agreed.

 

“Matt, Bart, I hardly think Joey is gonna sell this place,” Benny pointed out.

 

_‘As if,’_ Joey thought, agreeing with Benny. _‘_ _Uh-uh, nope, I'd keep it forever and show it off to all my friends. I mean, think of all the fun we can have here! This place is damn near perfect!’_

 

"That Sarah chick is a little scary though," GloZell remarked, vocalizing her one concern with the place as best she can. "That maid?" She grimaced.

 

"Yeah, she scares me," Joey admitted as GloZell did her best creepy maid impression. "I don't know…"

 

“Well, Sarah is from Russia,” Dawn pointed out, “but she is a bit creepy.”

 

"She needs to work on her makeup," Matt suggested and several of the women nodded in agreement.

 

But to be honest, GloZell didn’t think that makeup was gonna fix the problem here. _‘_ _I mean,_ look _at her,’_ she thought as the maid entered the room to refill their glasses before leaving again.  _‘_ _She just stands there, scowling at everybody like we all peed in her soup or something…ugh, you'd think she's gonna shoot up a Dairy Queen if we look at her wrong._ _When I become Mrs. Joey, and I get into the house, she's the first one that's gotta go_ _.’_

 

Oli noted that some of the women, especially GloZell and Lele, were acting like gold-diggers and he was pretty sure that it wasn’t lost on Joey, especially after Lele had asked him about the whole ‘girlfriend’ bit, and to be honest, he was there for the party and to have fun. And he had to hand it to the staff, despite them being creepy, the food was delicious.

 

_‘Geez, are Lele and GloZell the only ones here that don’t know that Joey’s gay?’_ Dawn wondered, having noticed as well how they’d been eying the house and the looks they’d been giving Joey since the party first started.

 

“We should place bets to see where we think _these_ two are, first of all," Justine suggested, gesturing to the empty chairs where Shane and Eva ought to be.

 

"Yeah, it's been a long time, they can't be in the toilet!" GloZell remarked, frowning. "You can't drop deuces that long!"

 

Oli glanced at the entrance to the dining room, hoping to see their two missing friends ready to rejoin the group. But there was still no sign of either Eva or Shane.  _‘_ _What if they're lost?’_ he wondered, sipping his water. _‘After all, this house is humongous…it’s the kind of house you could easily get lost in…and who knows what's waiting up those stairs_ _…’_

 

Sierra didn’t really care about where Shane and Eva were at the moment, and she was really enjoying the bread that’d been served with their dinner.  _‘I’ll worry about the carbs later.’_

 

“So is this impressive to you?" Joey asked her, no doubt fishing for even more compliments. "My estate?"

 

To which Sierra replied, "Oh…it's cute." And everyone gasped and laughed.

 

"Am I the only po' one here?" GloZell asked, earning another round of laughter from the group.

 

"Well, you got a bedazzled headband on," Tim pointed out.

 

GloZell paused for a second before responding. "I stole it." And this, of course, resulted in _even more_ laughter – and yes, Sierra did giggle, but she couldn’t help it. GloZell was just way too funny to be ignored, and now she was being silly with the head on her fur cover.

 

All of a sudden, everyone started cheering as Shane and Eva entered the dining room, and they were quick to take their seats at the table. The moment that they were seated, the others began interrogating them about what they had been doing.

 

“Where were you?"

 

"You're a little late!"

 

"Where  _were_ you guys?"

 

Shane, who was currently sitting between GloZell and Justine, ignored the questions and immediately turned his attention to the food. "What is this?"

 

"Do not change the subject, please!" Joey protested. "We want to know where you guys were!"

 

“You both were gone a long time,” Dawn agreed. “So, spill.”

 

Eva  _so_ wanted to tell them what happened _so bad,_ but she wasn’t sure that they would believe her. "I was in the bathroom!" she said quickly.

 

"For that long?" Joey scoffed.

 

"Is this real food?" Shane asked, ignoring the questions. "Can we eat this?"

 

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s real food, but you’re avoiding the questions, Shane.”

 

Even Joey wouldn’t let up. "Why are you changing the subject?” he asked. “I want to know where you guys were!"

 

It then occurred to Eva that the group had been clearly thinking they’d been making out or something. _‘O_ _h God, do they think we were…?’_ She wasn’t even going to finish that thought. “As much as I love a good make out…I was literally pooping," she insisted while Shane shot her a scandalizing look.

 

"Oh, okay," Joey said, and Eva breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Having apparently finished questioning Eva, Joey turned to Shane. "What about you?"

 

Shane swallowed another bite of food, pretending he didn't hear the question. He knew what he saw, and he knew Eva saw it too, but…now wasn’t the best time to mention it. Let Joey, Dawn, and the others live in blissful ignorance for a little while longer.

 

Not that he could keep it a secret forever, obviously. Eventually…he was gonna have to tell everybody. And boy, he was _not_ looking forward to seeing the happy smiles vanish off of his friends' faces. Fortunately, he was saved from having to respond by Arthur's arrival to the dining room. The butler's appearance prompts several "ohs" and "hellos" from the group, but Arthur didn’t seem to notice. He circled around the table until he reached Shane, and then tapped him on the shoulder.

 

Shane looked up from his food, and the butler handed him a rather official-looking piece of paper _._ _‘Why am_ I  _getting a note?’_

 

"Okay, now you have to open it and read it to us!" Lele exclaimed from across the table.

 

The group shouts their agreement, and Shane grinned, pretending that everything's normal as he opened it. "Y'all jealous?" he teased.

 

"What is it?" Eva asked.

 

"What's it say on the front?" Justine wanted to know.

 

Ignoring his friends' barrage of questions, Shane read the note…and he felt the food in his stomach become like stones.  _‘Oh no…oh no…it knows…it_ knows _!’_

 

When Shane didn’t show them the telegram he’d received, the others were begging him to read it aloud when Sarah suddenly entered with a covered tray, and they all started cheering since it was clearly their dessert.

 

"Wonderful!" Joey shouted with an approving smile. However, his smile disappeared when Shane suddenly started coughing and spitting out blood. “ _OH MY GOD!_ "

 

Pandemonium broke out in the dining room. Everybody was screaming and squirming in their seats, some of them craning their necks to get a better look at Shane's plight, others were trying to scoot their chairs as far away from him as possible. Joey shouted Shane's name, panic in his voice, his eyes wide with shock and concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh! Call 911! Things are not looking good for Shane! And you all will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I feel like updating, to figure out if Shane will live to or die. See you all later! Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	8. CHAPTER SEVEN: POISON AND CURE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane has been poisoned! Can his friends pull themselves together long enough to find the cure or will he die?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunrise! So, I felt like updating today and the next update will be tomorrow. So, as you know Shane has started coughing up blood, and the others are in a panic. Time to see if they can figure out what's wrong with their friend.

Escape the Night: An Invitation

 

A/N: Well.

 

Read, review, and enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from _Escape the Night_. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.

 

**CHAPTER SEVEN: POISON AND CURE**

 

*****

 

“ _What the hell is going on_ _?!_ ” Oli yelped, jumping to his feet while Shane was now out of his own chair and was staggering around the room, still coughing up blood, and both Joey and Dawn were trying to help him, which wasn’t easy, but they did manage to give him a napkin so that he was coughing into it instead.

 

When Arthur hurried into the room to see what was going on, Shane had collapsed onto the floor, and he was trying to say something, but it wasn’t easy to make out with all of his coughing and gagging, but Dawn did manage to hear what he was choking out.

 

“I – I – I think I got poisoned.”

 

_‘Oh God,’_ Dawn thought and she quickly whispered it into Joey’s ear while GloZell was screaming in fear.  _‘Who would poison Shane?’_ She checked his pulse and she was alarmed to find that it was racing.  _‘Not good. Not good at all!’_

 

“He says he was poisoned!" Joey informed the group, just in case some of them didn't catch what Shane said, half of them were still busy running around like chickens with their heads cut off, so it was possible.

 

Everyone started talking at once, and Eva pointed and shouted, "It was the maid!" while GloZell screamed a string of prayers and curses.

 

Joey was trapped in a state of shock. He didn’t know what was happening, he didn’t know who did this to Shane, and he certainly didn’t know what to do about it. All he knew was that Shane Dawson, one of the closest friends he had, was dying right in front of his eyes.

 

At least Matt still seemed to have his wits about him. "I'm reading the telegram," he announced, snatching the fallen note from Shane's abandoned plate. Justine was by his side in seconds, looking over his shoulder as he read.

 

"What does it say?" several people asked for the second time tonight…except this time, no one really wanted to know what it said anymore.

 

Matt looked up from the telegram and confirmed their worst fears. "It says he's been poisoned."

 

_Poisoned._ The very word sent chills down Joey's spine as hewent over to Matt to read the telegram and Dawn was with him since there wasn’t anything they could do for Shane… at least not yet.  _‘Why would someone poison one of my friends? Why?’_

 

The news that the telegram predicted Shane's poisoning earns several more "whats" from the guests, but then Lele pointed out what might be the worst part of this entire sordid story. "So he was…He _knew!_ ”

 

Deciding he has to see this for himself, Joey snatched the telegram from Matt. His hands shook as he read it aloud to the guests with Dawn peering over his shoulder, a part of him still praying that maybe someone will yell "Pysch!" and the entire thing will turn out to be just a horrible nightmare.

 

_In fifteen minutes you'll be dead…your lungs filled with blood…_ HOWEVER _, you know I love games. There is an antidote hidden on the first floor of the house. If you and your friends are wise enough, they'll be able to solve the clues and save you._

 

_‘Antidote…’_ Joey's mind was racing to catch up with his mouth and he glanced at Dawn, who was looking hopeful. _‘_ _So things aren't hopeless after all. We can save him. We can_ save  _him…’_ He continued reading while noting that there was an odd symbol on the paper.

 

_The symbols of your cult mark the clues leading to the antidote. It all begins with your last dish of the night._

_May you die in horrible pain, my cursed enemy_ _._

 

“‘It all begins with your last dish of the night’,” Dawn repeated, her forehead furrowed.  _‘A riddle?_ Seriously _? Shane’s dying and whoever poisoned him is giving us a riddle?’_

 

Justine immediately pointed at Sarah, who was still holding the covered dish. “What does she have under there?" she asked, her voice trembling.

 

Matt glanced at Sarah and _yes,_ she was still holding that covered dish she brought in seconds before Shane… "She's got the last dish!"

 

Oli rubbed his eyes and backed away slowly. "What the hell…?"

 

“ _What_ does she _have_ under there?" Justine's tone was bordering on frantic at this point.

 

The maid places the dish on the table, and Matt can't help but stare at it in apprehension. _‘_ _What's under there?’_ he wondered. _‘_ _How do we know it's food? It could be a freakin' bomb for all we know…’_

 

Eva, who was closest to the dish, reached for it. "I'll open it."

 

"Girl, I will fork you up," GloZell snapped, brandishing her fork in Eva's direction. "What is underneath there?"

 

Eva took off the lid and –she immediately jumped backward with a scream, and the others were screaming, too. Dawn was clinging to Joey, and they all were staring in horror at the human head that was on the dish.

 

It was a _freaking_ head with brown hair, closed eyes…thankfully, a bloody mouth, and it was clearly male.

 

Oli was the only one brave enough to move closer while the others were keeping their distance or were hiding behind their chairs, and he noticed that there was something in the head’s mouth. “Wait,” he said, leaning closer and saw that there was a piece of paper sticking slightly out of the mouth. “There's something in his mouth."

 

Ignoring his friends' shouts of disapproval, he reached into the bloodstained mouth and fished out the rolled-up slip of paper. It was disgusting, yes, but if it meant saving Shane, it _had_ to be done.

 

"Are we not gonna call the _police_ for this?" Lele wanted to know and Tim shushed her while Oli unrolled the paper and read it aloud to the group.

 

_Something is not okay with this room. I like it in a perfect order, but certain things want to wander around the table instead of finding their perfect fit. Can you figure it out?_

 

"Wait, what?" Joey asked, exchanging a confused look with Dawn, who was looking equally bewildered.

 

"This is what we gotta look for," Oli explained, pointing out the strange symbol scrawled on the side of the first telegram. "This symbol."

 

Justine was already up, wandering around the table, taking quick glances at everything in the room. "That symbol…that symbol means something."

 

"Why are we still here?" Sierra asked. "I feel like we should…"

 

Oli tuned her out, focusing on the two notes in his hands. "A perfect fit…" _‘_ _Think, Oli, think, you can do this…’_ "…can you figure it out…" He glanced over at Shane, who was lying on the floor, looking like he's halfway to the grave already. Arthur was kneeling over him, monitoring his condition. _‘B_ _ut he's not a doctor, we need a doctor, were there any good doctors in the 1920s? I don't know…’_

 

"Come on, guys!" he shouted, a hint of irritation mixed with desperation in his voice, seeing that Joey and Dawn were the only ones really searching for the symbol. "Shane is, like, _dying!_ ”

 

“I'm too stupid for this!” Lele complained, not even bothering to look, and Sierra was still eating the bread since she was convinced that this was all some kind of prank set up by Joey, Dawn, and Shane.

 

“Omigosh," GloZell moaned as everyone continued scouting the room for clues. "Shane gon' die…"

 

"Wait!" Matt was standing by the window, a glass holder in his hands. "What was that symbol on there?" He held it up, revealing the symbol on the top left of it. "Was it this?"

 

Eva made a beeline for Matt and glanced at the symbol. "Oh…yes it is, yes!"

 

The next several minutes were utter chaos – everyone was running around, searching for the three glasses that fit in the holder, trying and failing at least twenty times in the process. Finally, Oli shoved the last glass into place, and two seconds later, GloZell's distinctive voice rang out over the chatter of the rest of the group.“ _Whoa!_ No, Jesus! I rebuke you, Satan!"

 

This, of course, got everyone's attention, and it didn’t take long for them to find out what she was screaming at: an open box that Sierra was positive was not open before.

 

"Oh, lordy," GloZell fretted, "it opened up by itself!"

 

“Where did that box come from?” Dawn wondered, positive that it hadn’t been there before and even Joey didn’t recognize it.

 

The box, small, black, slightly sketchy-looking, had a note pinned on the front and three separate compartments inside. Each had a pitch-black lock on it, and each contained a small vial of yellowish liquid.

 

Sierra kneeled in front of the box and she began to read the note.

 

_There are three keys to unlock life, all hidden from view, but with one's strife you can attempt to save an innocent life._

 

"This is long," she complained, getting back up. "I don't wanna read this." She moved aside and Eva took over on reading the note.

 

_In the first floor study, one key to life is as high as a mountaintop. It's only a small thread, but it can give you what you're looking for. In the library is the second key, which lies hidden between the nine circles of hell described by letters and words. In the foyer is the third key to life, which can easily be found, but no one person can retrieve it without the helping hand of a friend._

 

“So, the keys have been hidden around the first floor?” Joey guessed.

 

Dawn nodded. “Yes, that’s it,” she said, thinking quickly. “We need to split up into groups and find the keys before it’s too late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poisoned?! Can Joey, Dawn, and their friends save Shane or will he die? You'll just have to find out tomorrow. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	9. CHAPTER EIGHT: SEARCHING FOR KEYS PART ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to the next installment of the pilot episode of Escape the Night! So, Shane has been poisoned and it's up to his friends to find the keys to unlocking the cure. Can they save their friend or will he die choking on his own blood? Time to find out.

**CHAPTER EIGHT: SEARCHING FOR KEYS PART ONE**

 

*****

 

After choosing teams, Dawn, Joey, Eva, and GloZell hurried out of the dining room to search for the first key in the study, while Tim took Andrea, Sierra, and Justine with him to search for the second key in the library. Matt, Lele, and Oli hurried into the foyer to search for the third key while Bart and Benny were helping Arthur with looking after Shane, having placed a pillow under his head.

 

*****

 

In the library, Tim was searching the shelves for the book they needed. “Uh…" He scoured the place, scanning the shelves for potential clues. "Letters and words are in books…" he muttered. _‘Come_ on _, DeLaGhetto, you have_ one  _job, dammit!’_

 

Now, if it was just him, he knew he could probably do a pretty decent job. But he had Andrea, Sierra, and Justine with him, and he suspected that none of them had read a book in years. That was going to be a problem.

 

"Is this a…" Sierra poked at an especially thick book on the mantlepiece that had a complex lock on it. "Is this a thing?" She giggled.

 

_‘A_ definite  _problem,’_ Tim thought.  _‘Shane’s gonna die because I have three dumb girls with me!’_

 

*****

 

In the foyer, Oli, Lele, and Matt found another box that they were pretty sure hadn’t been there when they first arrived, and they were examining it, trying to find the key to save their friend.

 

“Where’s the key?” Matt wondered, trying to peer through the holes into the box.

 

Oli, however, was right on top of things. "Hold on, wait!" He waited for Matt and Lele to get their heads out of the box, and then he started poking around the hole – or, at least, one hole in particular. "The square…so we need to get it to the square…" Hestuck his hand straight through the hole.

 

"I've got something!" he shouted in triumph when he felt something inside the box. "A box…a box of some sort…"

 

The pieces click together in Matt's mind. _‘T_ _he key, the key, this has to be the key…but how in the world are we going to get that box out of this gigantic box?’_

 

The three of them started sticking their hands through every available hole, feeling around, pushing the box, trying to guide it towards the exit…

 

_‘_ … _the helping hand of a friend…the helping hand of a_ _…’_

 

*****

 

Joey entered the study with Dawn, Eva, and GloZell, searching for the location of the key, that was supposed to be _as high as a mountaintop_. It was clear to them that whoever had poisoned Shane had a thing for riddles.

 

GloZell was looking around and she noticed something odd about a portrait of a mountain. Something was sticking out of the top of the top of the mountain. “Look, look!" she exclaimed, pointing to one of the study's many paintings. "There's somethin' sticking out of that mountain."

 

Joey, Dawn, and Eva dropped what they were doing and took a gander at the painting in question. Yes, there was a mountaintop, and GloZell was right; there _wa_ _s_ some sort of string sticking out of it.

 

"I don't know now, don't mess up these people's paintings…" GloZell warned as Joey got to work pulling on the string. "That's someone's _painting!_ ”

 

Personally, Joey didn’t give two cents about the painting, not when Shane's life was on the line. So he gave the blasted thing a few good yanks, the string came loose, _and there was the key!_

 

"A key!" he shrieked, smiling for the first time since this entire mess began. _‘_ _We got it, we got it, thank God, we can still save hi_ _m_ _…’_

 

“Come on,” Dawn said, feeling relieved. “Let’s get this back to the dining room and save Shane.”

 

Agreeing, they hurried out of the study, feeling hopeful.

 

*****

 

In the library, Tim picked up the book that Sierra had found on the fireplace mantle, and sure enough, it _was_ the book they needed. _That_ was the good news. However the bad news was _how_ were they going to open the blasted thing?

 

He set it on the table and they all examinedthe cover that had devils on it, along with words and numbers.

 

“So there's two devils," Andrea read, trying her best to conceal her confusion. She was the Fixer, she can fix anything, surely a simple math puzzle isn't beyond her abilities. "How many souls has he perverted this week?"

 

Justine was already way ahead of her. "Three young ones."

 

Andrea stared at the riddle before her. It was a sea of words and numbers and devils and perverted souls, none of which make any sense to her. And the font was kind of hard to read; she was honestly getting a headache just looking at it.

 

"To confound the king of devils and avoid his fiery wrath, he gives them a riddle instead of a straight answer." Justine took a deep, shaky breath. "Okay."

 

And that's when Andrea started to panic. She was no good at math—never has been—and Fixer or not, this was _way_ too confusing for her tiny YouTube brain to comprehend. "We're YouTubers," she fretted aloud. "We're not mathematicians."

 

"Where's the mathematician?" Sierra asked, giggling.

 

"It's all right." Tim took the book from Justine. "I'm Asian. I got this."

 

_‘Thank God,’_ Andrea thought, and she moved aside and let her friend take over.

 

*****

 

Oli, Matt, and Lele were still trying to get the box with the key through the maze that was inside the large box, and they were briefly distracted when Joey ran by with the key, and Dawn, Eva, and GloZell were right behind him.

 

“Guys, we got a key!”

 

Oli ignored them and spoke to Lele. “Put you hand in there,” he suggested, pointing to one of the holes she did so, and she was also wishing that Matt would actually help, but he was just standing nearby, being useless.

 

*****

 

In the dining room, Joey was trying the key on the locks, and so far it wasn’t fitting the first two locks. “It has to be this one," he said to Dawn, Eva, and GloZell, sticking their key into the one compartment they hadn’t tried yet. Fitting the key into the lock, he turned it, and it unlocked, getting sighs of relief from the girls since it meant that they had a real chance of saving Shane. He quickly took the tiny bottle out of the compartment. "I got it!"

 

Eva snatched the bottle from him and kneeled down next to Shane. She unscrewed the cap, and held it out to him. He took it with trembling hands and down the whole thing in one swallow.

 

Dawn knelt next to Shane and checked his pulse. “It’s working,” she informed them. “His pulse is starting to steady.”

 

"We need all three in order to cure him!" Arthur called out, reminding them all that Shane wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

 

Trying to ignore her tear-stained thoughts, Eva kept her eyes fixed on the ginger-haired boy she was going to all this trouble for. _‘_ _C'mon, Shane, you can do this,’_ she thought, _‘_ _you're gonna make it, you've gotta fight it…Shane,_ please,  _hold on, they're coming, just stay awake, stay alive, don't leave me…_ _I can't keep this secret alone_ _.’_

 

*****

 

In the library, Tim was trying to figure out the riddle so that they could unlock the book and get the key, but he was having troubles since Andrea, Justine, and Sierra weren’t being very helpful, and it was making it hard to focus on the numbers.

 

“There's three young ones," Tim muttered, going through the riddle once more. "And how old are they?"

 

Andrea shook her head. "We're not doing very good, man!"

 

"If you multiply their ages," Tim continued, ignoring her, "you will get the number thirty-six. If you add all their ages together, you will get the number of devils in the grand council." He pointed at the small, winged creatures engraved on the cover of the book. "Oh, wait, is this the number of devils?"

 

"That doesn't have anything to do with it!" Sierra protested and she was still giggling as she said it, and Justine couldn’t help but wonder if the girl was secretly some sort of giggle machine.

 

"It'll help us solve the riddle!" Tim insisted.

 

So they counted up the devils, and there were thirteen of them, and Justine was just glad they're making progress.

 

"Do we have, like, a pen?" Tim asked, looking around for a pen to write with so he could do the math.

 

"A pen?" Sierra repeated, almost hysterical. "We don't have a pen! We don't have time for a pen!" And her statement was immediately proven correct by the butler. "We only have three minutes!" he shouted, and even Justine's optimism was beginning to wear thin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, good news is Shane has gotten one part of the antidote, but it looks like the others are struggling to get the remaining keys. I will see you all Thursday to see if Shane will survive or not. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	10. CHAPTER NINE: SEARCHING FOR KEYS PART TWO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the second-to-last chapter for the pilot episode of Escape the Night! Yeah, it's a little later then I normally post, but I was up late due to a closing shift at the movie theater, and it was around 1 am when I got to bed. Anyway, time to see if Shane will survive or not.

**CHAPTER NINE: SEARCHING FOR KEYS PART TWO**

 

*****

 

“Come on, man,” Benny was saying to Shane, who was wheezing and Arthur was holding a napkin to his mouth to slow the blood, “just hang in there a little be longer.”

 

_‘Please don’t die,’_ Eva thought, silently praying.  _‘Please,_ please _don’t die!’_

 

Joey was getting worried that the others weren’t going to make it, and there was still the fact that they didn’t know who had poisoned his friend. “Who poisoned him? That's my question."

 

_‘The maid, the maid,’_ Eva thought, quickly glancing at Sarah, who was standing nearby with a cold expression, _‘it has to be, she poisoned him, she's going to kill me…’_

 

"You know what?" GloZell asked, pointing an accusing finger at Eva. "It could be you, because you were off with him. You're the only one who had access to him."

 

"Yeah!" Joey agreed.

 

Eva's heart sank. She should've known this was coming. She _was_ the last one alone with Shane, so of _course_ she was going to top everyone's list of suspects. Even if she tried to tell them the truth, they sure as hell wouldn’t believe her, and since Shane was too sick to speak, he couldn’t back up her story. “I was peeing!"

 

"Peeing with poison!" Joey scoffed.

 

“Guys, this isn’t the time to jump to conclusions,” Dawn objected, fixing them all with a stern look to cover up the fact that she was really freaked out by all of this. “And making wild accusations isn’t going to save Shane either. Let’s focus on saving him from the poison and _then_ try to figure out who would do this to him.”

 

Bart stood and glared at her. “Really?” he challenged. “Sounds more like you’re trying to divert our attention.”

 

“Bart, Dawn’s right,” Benny agreed. “Arguing with each other isn’t going to solve anything, and either is making assumptions with too little information.”

 

*****

 

In the foyer, Oli was trying to get the box out of the box maze, and neither Lele nor Matt were making it any easier, especially since they were running out of time. “Pinch it up, pinch it up," he repeated, as if it was some sort of mantra. They've been working on this box for what felt like years now, and he was honestly getting sick and tired of fumbling around in there.

 

And from the looks of it, so was Lele. "It can't go up!" she complained through gritted teeth, pushing at the box as if it's a wall she was trying to break down.

 

At least Matt had finally started helping. He'd got his hand stuck through a different hole, nudging the box towards Lele and Oli in a final desperate attempt to make some progress. "I've got it all the way in the back right now."

 

Oli had never been so frustrated in his life. He had no idea where this box is going, they need the key, Shane was still dying, and Lele and Matt were rolling their eyes and glaring at each other. This entire situation was a complete and utter mess, and a part of Oli wanted to throw in the towel right now.

 

_‘Concentrate,’_ he told himself, and, by extension, Lele and Matt. _‘_ _Keep trying. If we ever want to get this key out, we need to work as a team_ _.’_

 

*****

 

Back in the dining room, GloZell decided to start accusing Joey instead of Eva, and Bart was backing her up by accusing Dawn, too.

 

“Joey, you know what?" she snapped, her patience damn near close to the breaking point. "I think _you_ might have done it.”

 

“And I’m pretty darn sure that Dawn _helped_ you do it,” Bart added.

 

Joey and Dawn both stared at them like they had gone nuts, and with how the night was currently going, it was highly possible. “What? Why do you think we did it?”

 

_‘Oh, don't you play innocent with me, sweetheart,’_ GloZell thought. "He has more followers than you," she growled. "You probably tried to kill him!"

 

“And you probably helped him do it, Dawn!” Bart added, jabbing a finger at the actress. “You’ve probably kill people all the time!”

 

Dawn was now certain that Bart wasn’t playing with a full deck. “When have I _ever_ killed anyone?” she demanded. “ _When?!_ ”

 

“You do it all the time on those shows and movies,” Bart stated.

 

“They’re  _freaking_ works of fiction!” Dawn shrieked. “I’d never killed a real person in my whole _life!_ ”

 

"You think I'd want to kill Shane?" Joey asked GloZell, dumbfounded since he and Shane were good friends and he was trying to tune out the bickering between Bart and Dawn. "Why would I wanna kill Shane?"

 

"To take over his accounts!" Eva piped up.

 

"I don't get access…" Joey stumbled over his words and actually laughed since that was impossible. "The person who kills someone doesn't get their YouTube account!"

 

But GloZell had stopped listening to Joey's nonsense ages ago. "You are the…the YouTube killer." And he laughed again. "The YouTube killer…"

 

"You know what-" Joey began

 

"Zip-zap-a-doop-bappa-doop-ba-doop!" GloZell snapped, cutting him off. _‘_ _My love for Joey is strong, but he is tryin' me,’_ shefumed to herself as Joey convinced Bart to quit going after Dawn, and soon they and Eva were huddled over Shane. _‘_ _He is tryin' our love right now_ _.’_

 

*****

 

_‘May you die…in horrible pain…my…cursed…enemy_ _…’_ the words echoed through Shane’s mind as he struggled against the ongoing pain that was consuming him despite the antidote he drunk earlier.  _‘Come on guys,’_ he thought, aware that he was fading fast, and if he died, then his mission would be stuck with his friends.  _‘Don’t fight, work together. Please – please-’_

 

He was having troubles focusing on anything now, even the arguing going on above him, and he was feeling like he was floating away from the pain, from everything.

 

_‘It’s over for me,’ he realized when he found himself standing over his body and instead of in it. ‘I failed in my mission.’_

 

“ _No you haven’t,” said a voice and Shane turned to find two people standing behind him: one was a blonde woman dressed like an Amazon and the other was an Asian male wearing black leather._

 

“ _You did what you could, and your friends will finish the mission,” the Asian man informed him._

 

_Shane shook his head. “No, not them,” he protested, turning to look at his friends and at the wisps of darkness that he could now see coming out of the walls and encircling the others, slowly infecting them – all except for Dawn, who seemed to have a white glow about her. “Dawn…she’s glowing. Why?”_

 

“ _She has an innocence and light inside her that can’t ever be corrupted,” said the blonde woman. “That light will be instrumental in the battles to come.”_

 

_‘No wonder Dawn keeps playing heroes and protectors,’ Shane thought, realization dawning on him as he only knew one type of person who had that kind of light inside them, and he was seeing one of them. “Can, can they really fulfill my mission?” he asked, turning to them. “What if they fail? They don’t know about the evil in that house.”_

 

“ _Have faith, Shane,” said the Asian man. “Right now, all any of us can have is faith.”_

 

_Shane nodded, realizing that his part in events was over, even though he was young, and he went with them into a white light. It was over for him, and for his friends, it had just begun._

 

*****

 

Deciding that he’d had enough of arguing with GloZell and Bart, Joey poked his head into the foyer to check on Oli, Lele, and Matt. His heart sank when he saw that they were still struggling with getting the key out of the box, and they only had ninety seconds left according to Arthur.  _‘Come on, guys,’_ he thought.  _‘Shane needs the rest of the cure!’_

 

“Ladies and gentlemen…" Arthur began in a solemn voice and Joey spun around to face him, silently begging for him not to say the dreaded words, and yet he could see Dawn’s expression, and he knew what the butler was going to say. “Time is up."

 

GloZell started screaming while Dawn sank to her knees with a stunned expression on her face, and Joey turned and faced his fallen friend. Shane –  _oh, God, Shane –_ had stopped convulsing; he was on the ground with his head on a pillow, lying still… _too_ still…

 

"Shane is dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Shane, it's been nice knowing you. Next update will be on Monday since I have a morning shift at the movie theater on Tuesday. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	11. CHAPTER TEN: THE SCARY TRUTH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to the final installment of the pilot episode of Escape the Night!  
> As you recall, Shane died because the YouTubers couldn't get him the full antidote, time to see what is going to happen next.

**CHAPTER TEN: THE SCARY TRUTH**

 

*****

 

As the other YouTubers, many with disappointed expressions, reentered the dining room, Joey was wising he was somewhere else right now, somewhere where his friend wasn’t lying on the floor dead, and somewhere where he hadn’t invited _any_ of them to this blasted party. _‘_ _It's my fault,’_ he thought. _‘_ _My party. My responsibility. I'm the reason he's dead_ _.’_

 

Joey struggled to pull himself together as he moved back to where GloZell was now shaking Shane, like she thought she could wake him up, and he held out a hand to Dawn, who had tears streaming down her face. He helped her up and held her close so that she could bury her face in his shoulder as she shook and cried.

 

_‘I’m going to find the person who killed Shane,’_ he vowed.  _‘I’m going to find him, lock him up in a cell here in 1920, and then we’re all going back to 2016 where we belong. This place isn’t worth it.’_

 

Dawn pulled back just then and was grabbing a napkin off the table to wipe her face, which Joey knew was a sign that she was pulling herself back together, and he turned to face Tim when he entered with Sierra, Justine, and Andrea. “What happened?”

 

“We opened the book," Sierra informed him, adjusting her tiara as she did so. "We were so close!"

 

"Well, he's dead now," Joey snapped, "because of you guys!"

 

Sierra's hands flew to her chest in outrage. "It's not our fault!" she protested, still thinking that this was some prank and that Shane would wake up any second to prove her right.

 

"We found _our_ key in, like, a few seconds." Joey's tone was low and fierce, and he was shaking withanger and guilt.

 

Everyone started talking at once, flinging angry words every which way. Justine knelt down and put her gloved hand on Shane's shoulder, as if to protect him from the pandemonium he'd caused.

 

"Hold on!" Matt shouted, holding out his arms like a cop slowing traffic, and they all stopped shouting and looked at him. "We gotta figure out who killed him first!”

 

Justine got up and pointed an accusing finger at Tim.“No, you know who killed him, probably? I mean, what are you? Aren't you, like, a murderer?”

 

“I don't kill my friends," Tim protested, somehow managing to keep his voice calm despite the fact that he's just been accused of murder. "I just kill people who owe money to me, all right?”

 

“Does he owe money to you?" Joey inquired and soon everyone was shouting and accusing each other again.

 

Eva, however, was putting the pieces together to form a picture that wasn’t pretty, and while Justine was insisting that they needed to get rid of the body, and she herself was being accused of killing Shane by Joey again, Matt asked a question that made sense.

 

“Who had a motive to kill him? Did anyone hang out with him before we came here?”

 

_‘Of course!’_ Eva thought, recalling that she and Shane had seen Sarah the maid disposing of a body, and that meant that she was working for the real killer. She immediately turned to Joey and Dawn, pointing an accusing finger at them. “I think _Joey_ and  _Dawn_ were the person who killed him!" she declared, knowing full well that she was risking her life by outing them now, but she was already a dead girl walking, so what the hell did she care? “ _And they’re gonna kill us all_ _!_ ”

 

“I agree!” GloZell agreed loudly and Bart was fully agreeing, too. “It’s Joey and Dawn!” She faced them. “You both are killers!”

 

“We didn’t kill _anyone!_ ” Dawn exploded and this got the group to shut up so that they were all staring at her with wide eyes, even Joey. She didn’t like to lose her temper, but this was becoming increasingly too much, and her patience had reached it’s breaking point. “ _Whoever_ killed Shane is doing this to make us turn against each other,” she continued, looking around at each of them. “And the more time we waste accusing and bickering with each other, the real killer _wins_. We’re _all_ at risk here, and jumping to conclusions isn’t going to help solve Shane’s murder either.”

 

_‘I shouldn’t have accused them,’_ Eva thought, hating herself, but she was still fearful for her life, and there was only one other person that could be behind the poisoning of Shane. “Guys…what if it’s none of us, and it’s…the maid?”

 

Lele burst out laughing and pointed to Sarah, who was looking politely confused. “ _Look_ at her!”

 

“She served the head!” Eva exclaimed.

 

“No, the cook is the one who prepared the dessert,” Tim pointed out, and when Dawn said that the food was prepared by Arthur and Sarah, he realized his goof. “Oh, never mind.”

 

Joey knelt down next to Shane’s body and he began searching the pockets for _anything_ that could help explain how the night went from fun to horror so fast, and when he found a folded piece of paper, he pulled it out. Getting up, he unfolded the paper and found that it had a letter written on it. “Listen to this,” he said and he read it aloud. “‘If you're reading this, I have failed in my mission. My killer is not who you might think it is; it's the house itself…’” And this made everyone gasp and they looked at the house with fear.

 

_‘How can a house kill someone?’_ Joey wondered and he resumed reading. “‘…which is possessed of an ancient evil that has locked it in time. I came here tonight with the intention of destroying it. I am a member of a secret organization known as the Society Against Evil, and we've been battling this wicked force for centuries. There are four artifacts, which the evil has hidden behind a series of puzzles and clues. If they can be gathered, and a binding ritual can be performed, the evil will be locked away.

 

“However, to complete the final task to retrieve each artifact, the group must vote on two or three people who must undertake a dark challenge. Tragically, one of them will die. But to help you along the way, the Society Against Evil has marked the clues with their symbol. You have until sunrise to recover the artifacts before you are trapped here forever. What lies ahead will not be easy, but I'm afraid you have no other choice if you want to get back to 2016. Good luck, guys. Whatever happens…I'm glad I got the chance to know you. Signed, Shane Dawson’.”

 

As silence fell over the group as they tried to process the revelation that Shane had been a member of a secret society this whole time, Dawn looked at the letter, finding on it the same symbol that’d been on the telegram and the drink holder.  _‘A secret society? Fighting against evil, and that same evil is in this house? Joey’s nightmare was about this house, it was a warning!’_

 

She and Joey exchanged looks, having come to the same conclusion. The nightmare that’d been giving Joey so much trouble had been a warning about this place, and instead of heeding it, they had been living in a possessed house this whole time! They _had_ to get everyone out of there and fast before the evil could kill someone else!

 

“Okay, so there's an evil spirit running 'round here," GloZell said, finally breaking the silence, "but we gotta find like, what, four of these lil' things? Or we gon' be stuck in the house?”

 

_‘Thank you, GloZell,’_ Joey thought, folding up the letter and putting it inside his own coat,  _‘_ _for summing that up_ _.’_ There was _no way_ he was going to let any of his friends remain in this house, which he no longer wanted, a second longer.  _‘Sorry, Shane, but we aren’t going to fulfill your mission for you.’_ “Guys, I think we should leave, follow me, I have a car that can take us out of here.” He took Dawn’s hand, and they headed for the door, the others quickly following them.

 

*****

 

Soon enough, the group was hurrying out of the house with Joey and Dawn in the lead, heading across the porch and down the stairs to the front of the house. Unfortunately, GloZell was lagging behind and Arthur was trying to assist her.

 

“Just a moment," the butler called out. "Wait for GloZell.”

 

“Wait for GloZell!” Tim shouted out to the group, not wanting to leave anyone behind either.

 

“We're not gonna fit in one car,” Matt pointed out.

 

“We’ll make it work somehow,” Dawn reassured him. “We’re almost to the car and we’re not going to leave _anyone_ in the 1920s.”

 

“Guys, wait!" Sierra screamed. She was almost at the bottom of the steps, but she looked about ready to burst into tears at this point. "These shoes hurt so bad!”

 

The group slowed for a moment and that was when the car suddenly _exploded!_ They all screamed and jumped, clinging to each other as their one means of leaving was transformed into a large ball of fire right before their eyes, and they all retreated back to the house with GloZell screaming “Jesus” the whole way.

 

They were trapped!

 

To be continued…

 

*****

 

_I have so many, so many regrets._

_So many lies, so many broken ties._

_I wish for my old life._

_Wish I could fix my strike._

_Cause no one truly escapes the night._

_Oh, won't you help me escape the night._

_Oh baby help me escape the night._

_Escape the night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOM! So much for the car, and now they're all trapped! I will see you all on Thursday with the start of the next episode. Bye for now! R&R everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Staying at that house is a bad idea and Joey should've listened to Dawn. Right? I will post the next chapter tomorrow. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


End file.
